BigBlueButton video not working on Mac OS X Safari running Flash 10.1 (solution)

[Fred Dixon]

Google Talk prevents access to webcam on Macs running earlier version
of Flash within Safari.

When running Safari 5.0.5 on Mac OS 10.6.7 with Google Talk Plugin
v2.0.4.2108 and Flash 10.1.102.64, if you do the following

1. Login to BigBlueButton 0.71a
2. Share video

You have three options

Google Camera Adaptor 0
Google Camera Adaptor 1
Built-in iSight

and none will work.

On the same Mac, using Google Chrome, which has Flash built-in, the
Flash version is 10.3.181.22 and when logging into BigBlueButton there
are three options for sharing the webcam

Google Camera Adaptor 0
Google Camera Adaptor 1
USB Video Class Video

BigBlueButton automatically selects the third option and it works.

It appears that Safari does not automatically update the Flash version
on Mac. I downloading the latest version of Flash from

http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/

and again did a Flash version check again from within Safari. This
time it now read

Mac 10.3.181.22

and tried sharing video again. This time I saw the entry for "USB
Video Class Video" and it now worked.

Looks like about a year ago Apple stopped bundling updates to Adobe
Flash Player in Mac OS updates

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9192699/Apple_dumps_Flash_from_Mac_OS_X

This means anyone using a Mac and has not manually updated their Flash
for Safari will have Flash version 10.1 and will have a conflict with
Google Talk.

Recommend everyone using a Mac install the latest version of Adobe
Flash (http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/). If you are using FireFox
or Chrome, they already have built-in auto-updating mechanisms for
Flash. It's only Safari that, due to Apple's decision, does not auto
update Flash.

As of Flash 10.3, Adobe added auto updating to Flash itself when
running on the Mac.

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/11/05/13/adobe_flash_10_3_adds_auto_update_notification_for_apples_mac_os_x.html

Regards,... Fred

[Sam De Francesco]

I had this problem just the other day, updating Flash fixed it -
appears to be a bug with some 10.1 versions of Flash.

cheers
sam

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